Editor’s introduction.

Following consultation with the Council of Editors and with approval from the Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association (APA), it was agreed that in recognition of the appearance of Volume 100 in 1986, Journal of Comparative Psychology (JCP) would publish a set of discussions about our topic. The discussions, contributed in response to the following letters, written last year, appear in this issue. These discussions illustrate the richness and variety of some of the perspectives on the field of comparative psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Do males and females think in the same way? An empirical investigation on the gender differences in Web advertising evaluation

Informativeness and entertainment are regarded as two types of advertising value that can influence consumers’ attitudes toward Web advertising. Despite of many studies on these two factors, there are two research gaps in extant literature. First, the effects of informativeness and entertainment on attitude are considered separately, yet their interaction effect is neglected. Second, the role of individual characteristics (e.g., gender) in the advertising evaluation process is far from clear. To address these two issues, a laboratory experiment was conducted to investigate the interaction effect between informativeness and entertainment, and also the moderating role of gender. The results indicate that informativeness can help form a more positive attitude for males than for females, and entertainment can lead to a more positive attitude for females than for males. It is also found that there is a three-way interaction among informativeness, entertainment, and gender. More specifically, the interaction effect between informativeness and entertainment is significant for females, but insignificant for males. Results, research contributions, and limitations are discussed, and implications for future studies are suggested.     

Impacts of frequency and posture on body mass index in manual handling tasks

Workspace design plays an important role in ensuring workers' safety and welfare. The issue is more pressing in the manufacturing industry, where many workers must remain in a standing position, assume awkward postures, and perform repetitive tasks for extended periods of time. In this research, an electromyographic measurement technique was used to measure activity of four back muscles: the trapezius p. descendens, the deltoideus p. scapularis, the infraspinatus, and the latissimus dorsi. The results showed a statistically significant (p < 0.05) impact of left versus right side of the body, the degree of rotation to the right side of the body (0, 30, and 60 degrees rotation to the mid‐sagittal plane), body mass index level (normal weight [<25 kg/m²] vs. overweight [?25 kg/m²]), and tasks (high vs. low frequency). In this study, the role that workers and workspace variation play is clearly associated with an increase in the amplitude of electromyography at the targeted back muscles. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Extension of the Interpersonal Adjective Scales to include the Big Five dimensions of personality.

Recent recognition that the dominance and nurturance dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex correspond closely to the surgency/extraversion and agreeableness dimensions of the five-factor model of personality provides an occasion for the closer integration of these two traditions. We describe the procedures whereby we extended our adjectival measure of the circumplex Revised Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS-R) to include the additional Big Five dimensions of conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The resultant five-scale instrument (IASR-B5) was found to have excellent structure on the item level, internally consistent scales, and promising convergent and discriminant properties when compared with the NEO Personality Inventory and the Hogan Personality Inventory. The unique feature of the IASR-B5 is that it provides a highly efficient instrument for combined circumplex and five-factor assessment. We provide an example of such combined assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrepancy between predicted and obtained WAIS–R IQ scores discriminates between traumatic brain injury and insufficient effort.

This study examines how well the discrepancy between predicted and obtained Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–Revised (WAIS–R) scores discriminate between insufficient effort (IE) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). The 27 IE patients performed significantly more poorly on the WAIS–R than the 48 moderate-severe TBI patients. Premorbid IQs were calculated with formulae that use demographics (Barona Index) or demographics and WAIS–R performance (Best-3 and the Oklahoma Premorbid Intelligence Estimation). Predictions were similar on the Barona, but IE patients' predicted IQs were lower than TBIs for measures with a performance component. IE patients demonstrated a greater discrepancy score (i.e., predicted IQ—obtained IQ) than TBIs; variable levels of sensitivity and specificity were obtained when discriminate functions were developed on these scores. The potential advantage of using discrepancy scores versus performance-based measures to detect insufficient effort is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determining Who Will Benefit from Visual Interfaces

Visual interfaces are I an emotional issue. The zealous stance of some proponents of visual I interfaces has led to equally zealous attacks on visual interfaces from some of the opponents. This column sorts out the pros and cons of the visual interface and offers some guidelines for determining which environments can best use it.     

The Role of the Individual – A Key to Learning in Preparedness Organizations

A well functioning societal response to crises is benefited by individuals having adequate skills and knowledge. From a municipal perspective this requires the creation of a learning organization. The objective of this study is to determine whether individual municipal employees, who have the responsibility for preparedness planning, reason and act in ways that promote learning about crises and preparedness issues throughout the municipal organization. Analysis of interviews with preparedness planners in six Swedish municipalities on their strategies for preparedness planning, reveal that preparedness planning too often becomes a demarcated activity, restricted to not more than a handful of individuals. This study indicates that one reason for why the preparedness work becomes demarcated is that individuals central to the preparedness planning are not taking on roles for acting in ways that are required in order for a learning organization to be established.     

Diagnostic validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision.

Compared the diagnostic validity of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery—Children's Revision (LNNB—C) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children—Revised (WISC—R) for 96 8–12 yr olds in 1 of 3 diagnostic groups: neurological, psychiatric, and normal controls. Interrater reliability was demonstrated. Separate stepwise discriminant analyses using 6 variables (subtest scores) selected by each test correctly classified 81% (LNNB—C) and 85% (WISC—R) of the psychiatric and neurological groups. No clear incremental validity for the use of the LNNB—C over the WISC—R was demonstrated. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of long memory in hedging effectiveness

A joint fractionally integrated, error-correction and multivariate GARCH (FIEC-BEKK) approach is applied to investigate hedging effectiveness using daily data 1995-2005. The findings reveal the proxied error-correction term has a long memory component that theoretically should affect hedging effectiveness. When the FIEC model empirical conditions are satisfied, the FIEC-BEKK hedging strategy outperforms the OLS benchmark out of sample in terms of both variance reduction and hedger utility. A bootstrap exercise indicates that the variance reduction is statistically significant.